


Bad Wolf Don't Bite No More

by Ikira



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Abigail-centric, Gen, Lonely Abigail, Portal Universe, Space Wolves, Star Wolves, mentions of attempted sexual assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 09:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3972850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ikira/pseuds/Ikira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abigail remembers the swirling colours of the portal universe, but mostly she remembers the Star Wolves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bad Wolf Don't Bite No More

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what happened. The image of the Star Wolves just kind of sprung up in my mind out of nowhere, and I knew I had to do SOMETHING with them. Plus this gave me a chance to try something new. I hope it worked

Abigail remembered.

Even after weeks in the hospital, and months of therapy after, she still dreamed of the portal world. Her nights were filled with spirals of candy coloured clouds of space dust and the chill of the void reaching out to her, only the thin metal hull of her pod protecting her. She caught herself remembering, whenever her mind wandered too far, the strangeness, the absolute _alien_ quality of the world she’d fallen into. Most of the time it had been the colourful nebula swirling around her, all bright clashing colours and strange patterns, but sometimes it would change. Sometimes something like night would fall and the colours would go dark and even through her closed eyes and science-induced sleep she could feel the emptiness stretching out before her, yawning like the mouth of some horrible beast ready to swallow her up. Sometimes drops of metal fell like rain, pattering so loudly against her pod that she’d thought she’d go deaf.

But mostly she remembered the Star Wolves.

She never saw them. How could she? She’d been asleep the whole time. But still, she knew them. Great and glorious creatures, their thick fur made of swirling dark matter and dust, stars glowing under their skin in complicated constellations. Their eyes shined like suns staring straight at her, unblinking, always watching her, this unwanted intruder in their world. Sometimes they came close enough that their hot breath fogged up the pod’s window, the metal shaking from the force of each exhale, their icy teeth scraping against the thin shell. But they never harmed her.

They merely lingered, watching. Always watching.

A deep instinctive part of her feared them. An even deeper part of her longed to see them up close. But then she’d been rescued by a boy with wild hair and hurting eyes, who stared at her as if he wished she was someone else, and she’d left the portal world and the swirling colours and the Star Wolves behind.

Or so she thought.

Sixteen weeks and four days after her escape from the portal world, she saw a flash of something dark and glittering out of the corner of her eye when she was walking home from picking up groceries, her one lonely bag of supplies hanging in one hand. She’d been so startled she’d nearly dropped her bag, and only barely managed to keep it from crashing to the ground with her free hand.

By the time she’d looked up again from her groceries, the figure was gone and there was no sign that it had ever been there. Still, she couldn’t help but shudder. The wind that had cropped up felt like hot wet breath on the back of her neck. She gripped her bag closer to her chest and walked as fast as she could back to her apartment, not daring to look either left or right the whole way home.

The second time she spotted them, she’d been waiting in her new therapist’s office. The last appointment was running overtime, and she’d been stuck waiting for over fifteen minutes already. She’d been watching the receptionist file her nails for the past five minutes and she couldn’t help but realize this was the most time she’d spent in the company of another human being since she’d gotten back.

Uncomfortable now, she had half a mind to simply ask the receptionist to reschedule her when she saw something move outside of the window. Her eyes focused immediately, and she had to bite back a scream when she saw glowing eyes staring back at her. As it was, she nearly fell out of her chair with fright.

But once again, when she looked up, it was gone. After reassuring the receptionist that she was fine, just lost her balance for a moment, she moved over to another seat that faced away from the window so she wouldn’t have to look outside again. She ended up waiting a whole half hour for her appointment, but she suddenly didn’t want to go outside anymore.

They haunted her for another week and a half, darting in and out of her vision and stalking her footsteps, before they finally revealed themselves to her.

It was late at night, she was walking home from her therapist, the only reason she usually left the house anymore. She had taken a shortcut through the park and was already seriously questioning her decision. While San Fransokyo was a relatively safe city, it still had its fair share of crime, and every single gust of wind was making her jump, her eyes darting this way and that for unseen attackers lurking in the bushes.

But even though she was on edge, even though she was trying to be careful, even though she was _sure_ she was alone, the man still managed to sneak up on her.

Rough hands grabbed her by the waist and mouth from behind. She’d never even heard his approach. She tried to scream, but he was wearing thick leather gloves and he was grabbing her face so tightly she thought her jaw might break. Even still she fought as hard as she could, kicking and punching and trying to drive her elbows into any soft areas she could reach. The man grunted when she managed to land a particularly hard blow to his side, and then he growled in her ear. He shook her once, violently, so hard that her vision darkened for a second, and then started dragging her backward, further into the dark shadows of the park.

Abigail’s heart was in her throat, pounding harder and harder the farther they got from the lighted paths. Tears started prickling her eyes as fear overcame her. She was still trying to escape, but the man’s grip was too firm. She couldn’t manage to wiggle loose without hurting herself, and no matter what she did he wouldn’t let go. She was helpless.

The man finally dragged her behind a clump of bushes, far enough away from everything that even if she screamed there was a good chance no one would hear her. There, he threw her down on the ground, pinning her with his hands and knees before she could scramble away, and her fear spiked so hard it nearly blinded her. His face was covered by a mask, but she could smell his rank breath, stained with smoke and alcohol, as he leaned down close and buried his face in her throat. He sniffed deeply, and let out an appreciative grunt. Abigail wanted to be sick.

A gloved hand reached down towards her pants.

Unearthly howls split the silence of the night. The hairs on the back of Abigail’s neck stood on end, and her breath caught in her throat. She had thought she was afraid before, with this strange man hovering over her, ready to do horrible things to her, but that was nothing compared to the primal fear that gripped her now. Sheer terror was the only phrase for it.

The man seemed to have heard the noise as well, because he’d frozen stiff on top of her, his hand just inches from her waist. He leaned back for a moment to look for the source of the sound, giving her space to breathe, but not enough space to escape. He craned his neck, searching over the tops of the bushes.

That was the last mistake he ever made. There was a snarl, a blur of dark fur and stars, glittering teeth like comet trails in a gaping mouth. And then Abigail was free, the man knocked clear of her chest by a mass of muscle and rage and otherworldly power.

She could hear the man screaming, and the sound of snapping bone and tearing flesh, but Abigail’s eyes were still fixed dead ahead, staring up at the sky. In a city so full of lights, normally people couldn’t see the stars except for the very brightest, too much light pollution. But tonight, Abigail looked up and saw a sky covered in glittering lights, so full of stars she almost couldn’t see the blackness of space. The Milky Way trailed by, bright on bright. It was absolutely beautiful and Abigail found that she couldn’t look away, even if she’d wanted to.

Eventually the screaming stopped, and the world fell silent once more. Abigail barely dared to breathe. Her heart nearly jumped into her throat when a massive paw landed next to her head, so close she could feel the strands of dark matter brushing her face. Slowly, timidly, she followed the line of the paw to the foreleg to the chest full of constellations under fur to glowing supernova eyes.

Although she could barely breathe through her fear, she met the Star Wolf’s eyes, and she didn’t look away. It was the bravest thing she’d ever done.

The Star Wolf stared back, its eyes somehow burning brighter than ever. Slowly she sank into them, the world falling away to become light and coldness and darkness and ancient beauty, and behind it all she could just barely make out wolves with stars for eyes and nebulae for fur running freely through swirling candy colours in space dust. She saw, and she felt, and she _understood_.

She didn’t know how long she was lost in the Star Wolf’s eyes, but when she came back into herself, she was no longer afraid. But she was also no longer Abigail. She felt bigger, broader, _more_ than that. She couldn’t see it, but her eyes had started to glow like stars themselves.

She slowly climbed to her feet.

When the Star Wolf pressed a space-cold nose against her cheek and nuzzled, she didn’t flinch away. Instead she buried her fingers deep into its ruff, marvelling at the way it was somehow both freezing and warm. But it was comforting too. Comforting in a way that nothing else had been since she’d returned to this world she’d once called home but no longer felt a part of. More familiar than the stone-like face of her imprisoned father staring back at her through plexiglass, a better solace than the lonely apartment she went home to. For the first time since Abigail had been brought back from the portal world, she felt _at home_ again.

With a happy sigh, she pressed her face against the Star Wolf’s shoulder and closed her eyes. Around her she could feel other members of the pack appearing out of the shadows, all watching her unblinkingly, but now the feeling didn’t bring her fear, it brought her a feeling of safety. They weren’t watching her, they were watching _out_ for her. She knew now. They’d claimed her, the strange little intruder that had come into their home. She’d become theirs the moment she’d fallen into their territory, and now they were just as much hers. She welcomed them gladly, a smile on her face.

After a time, the Star Wolf pushed her away with a shoulder and huffed, its breath coming out in puffs of stardust that settled on her hair and shoulders like shimmering snow. She laughed, wiping happy tears from her eyes, and nodded. It was right. It was time to go.

Without words, the Star Wolf crouched low, allowing her to climb onto its back without trouble. She grabbed a handful of fur in each hand, gripping tightly to make sure she wouldn’t lose her balance, and hauled herself up. Once she was settled, the Star Wolf rose gracefully to its feet, shaking itself slightly. Abigail stayed firmly in her seat.

The Star Wolf looked back at her over its shoulder, almost questioningly, the rest of the pack gathering close. A sea of suns glittered up at her, and Abigail felt a rush of affection for each and every one of them.

“Come on, guys,” she whispered into the night. “Let’s go home.”

The Star Wolf gave her a grin full of teeth before it threw its head back and howled, its haunting cry echoed by the rest of the pack until the night sky was filled with wolfsong. Already Abigail could feel the swirling patterns of colour reaching out to her, like the welcoming arms of an embrace. One that she was all too ready to accept.

The Star Wolves disappeared into the night with their chosen child, her voice raised in a cry that almost sounded like a wolf’s howl itself. They left stardust pawprints in the grass and a purse with twenty dollars and a tube of lipstick inside as the only sign they’d ever been there.

None of them were ever seen in San Fransokyo again.

**Author's Note:**

> (And for anyone wondering about The Dead Bury Themselves, I AM ALMOST DONE, I SWEAR. It's still coming, I promise, the last little bit is just fighting me very hard. But soooon. Hopefully soooooon.


End file.
